Mellow Daze

 

But Which Leaf?

After mentioning in a previous post a character in a novel whose hair color was described as feuille morte (dead leaf), I began to wonder just which dead leaf. They do come in a variety of shades. 

 Further online investigation led me to a definition of brownish-orange or yellowish -brown. Or ochre

or sienna.

Then I remembered another novel and another odd French name for a color--a woman was describing a silk ball gown in a killing merde d'oie. Aka goose shit green--a brownish-green. 

I thought that sounded fairly unattractive, but then I stumbled on a shade called caca de dauphin. Those French! The (probably apocryphal) story behind this name is that Marie Antoinette was holding the baby prince when he pooped all over her. Rather than being disgusted, the queen marveled at the color --yellow, as is common in young breast-fed babies--and ordered a dress of that exact color--which color, of course, became popular in court circles.

Until the Revolution.

 

Moonrise

 

Feuilles-Mortes

                                                                     

 

Brown is probably my least favorite color, closely followed by grey. I know there are countless beautiful shades of each but still, like James Taylor, deep greens and blues are the colors I (mostly) choose. 

But the shapes of these dead leaves enthrall me and present a challenge to capture them. So I find myself exploring the browns and enjoying it. Though I've taken some liberties . . .

Now I understand why the beautiful Irene of Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga was described as having hair the color of feuille morte--dead leaf. It puzzled me when I first read it sixty years ago, but now I think I understand.

In checking my facts, I was delighted to discover that the Saga is online free. Check it out HERE 

Into November

 

Dear Sir

                                                 

 Dear "Representative" Edwards,

Are you enjoying your paid vacation? Living it up while many of your constituents go without pay or food assistance and with the threat of prohibitively priced health insurance?

Are you comforted by the news of a shiny marble bathroom in the White House? Did you thrill to the sight of POTUS at his lavish Gatsby party, celebrating conspicuous consumption while denying SNAP funding?

Is your mind at rest during your paid vacation because you know your Dear Leader is in charge and the House is powerless to resist him? 

You and your party disgust me.

An unrepresented constituent

Living in Middle Earth

                                              Looking at the beauty surrounding us, I sometimes feel like the astronauts who looked back at the beautiful blue ball of Earth and wondered how something so lovely could contain so much suffering and hatred.

Rabbit Rabbit

 

The Magus by John Fowles

After reading Fowles's French Lieutenant's Woman, I decided to revisit his The Magus, last read probably thirty or forty years ago. It had left an indelible impression on me as a work of marvelous descriptions and intriguing characters, plus a twisting plot with more questions than answers.

I sought out an unabridged audio version and was not disappointed--the narrator Nicolas Boulton does an excellent job with the diverse characters and accents. It's a feast of over 26 hoursa of listening.

The surprise for me was how much I grew to dislike the main character--who is pretty much an anti-hero--and how disappointed I was at the ambiguous ending, despite a earlier warning from the author. (This novel, like The French Lieutenant's Woman, is metafiction in which the author occasionally addresses the reader, reminding them of the essential fiction of the telling.)

I very much enjoyed the hours of listening--even as I grew increasingly annoyed with the protagonist--something I don't remember from previous readings. 

I wonder if it's my age or the times in which we live that changed my attitude.

Not Entirely Faded

 

Not Dead Yet

 Back in June, I bought three impatiens plants in three small pots. Two were pink and one a deep fuchsia. From these three plants, I've rooted any number of additions to my porch garden. The pink one grows quite tall, taller than I've known impatiens to get. And in this big pot in the shelter of our porch, they have outdone themselves. 

The temps are dropping. We haven't had a frost yet but who knows if they'll make it through the night. 

Darkness is closing in, so we light a fire and switch on lamps. The seasons roll on in their implacable way.

Fading Glory

 

Choosing a Title (Re-post)

 

The title of a book, along with its cover, is the writer's first chance to grab a reader's attention and tempt him to pick up the book. As I've mentioned before, the cover is pretty much out of my hands -- the Art Department and the Marketing Department at Random House deal with that. As for the title, I send in my idea for a title and so far, except in one case which I'll talk about later, the titles have been accepted.

In choosing a title, I look for something a bit tantalizing that, in some ways, reflects the content and tone of the book. And I usually check on Amazon to make sure that title hasn't been used recently.  Titles can't be copyrighted so I'm free, if I want, to call a book Gone with the Wind or The House at Pooh Corner. But instead, I rack my brains, trying to come up with something semi-original. 

It's not easy.

People often ask what me a particular title of mine "means." In the case of my first novel, Signs in the Blood, the answer is that I'm not exactly sure. I usually ask what they think it means and have gotten some terrific explanations, often involving horoscopes and/or planting by the signs as recommended by The Old Farmers' Almanac.

Alas, it's nothing that clever. As I recall, while I was writing Signs, I was researching the snake-handling Holiness religion that plays a large part in this novel and came across the phrase 'signs in the blood.' That sounds like a good title, I thought and made a note of it.


Unfortunately, I neglected to make a note of what it meant. And though I've looked, I've never found that passage again.  But what I think it means comes from the fact that folks of the Holiness church call themselves "signs-following believers." (These aren't horoscope signs but the signs mentioned in the Bible  -- "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," (Mark 16:17-18).)

So I suspect that 'signs in the blood,'  refers to the fact that these beliefs tend to be passed down in families.  Really, not much at all to do with the story I was telling. But nonetheless a mysterious sounding title.

 

Art's Blood was a mistake. I had the idea that I might try to use the word 'blood' in all my titles and, since this book had to do with art and artists, I came up with this rather lame pun -- art's blood -- heart's blood. It was meant as a working title, something to be replaced when I thought of a better one but my editor liked it so there it is.   I don't like it because punning titles tend to suggest a cozy, humorous mystery -- which this isn't. Ah, well . . .

By my third book, I'd abandoned the idea of always having  the word blood in the title. For one thing, a friend told me that the titles suggested slasher-type stories and for another thing, when I made a list of titles including blood, everyone of them had already been used recently, sometimes several times.

Besides, for once I had a great idea! I wanted to call this book The Booger Dance. That's the name of a Cherokee dance that plays an important part in this book, both actually and symbolically. And it's certainly memorable.

Unfortunately, both my agent and my editor reacted with horror to this proposal, feeling that such a title would have buyers hurrying away with averted eyes.

So, since my editor had suggested that this might be a good time to explore Elizabeth's past and perhaps uncover some old wounds . . .

In a Dark Season is pretty straightforward. It's set in November and a pivotal scene is on the Winter Solstice -- a dark season for sure. And the tone is rather dark as well. 

The Day of Small Things came from a Bible verse -- I was skimming through Bartlett's Quotations, looking for inspiration  and came across it.  Not the most inspired choice but I liked the sound.

Next year's book, Under the Skin,  deals with Elizabeth and her very different sister. The title comes from a poem by Kipling which contains the lines, "But the colonel's lady an' Judy O'Brady are sisters under the skin."

Here's an article about the original titles of ten famous novels. 

Trimalchio on West Egg ? Really?